4 Cleveland Browns who may not get extensions after Deshaun Watson trade
By Greg Newland
Cleveland Browns Player not getting an Extension No. 3 – David Njoku
The Cleveland Browns finally cut the cord on the Austin Hooper experiment. The deal just never worked out for either party and unfortunately, the Browns will have to eat a portion of that contract for the next two seasons.
With Watson having nearly a $55 million cap hit in 2023, I don’t know if a long-term extension with David Njoku is possible either. The franchise tag worked well this season with such a small-cap hit for Watson in 2022, but there will need to be some constant re-shuffling to get much done.
Tight end is still a relatively cheap position in the NFL, but the chief will still be looking for $10 million-plus per season if he shines in this offense as many people expect.
Njoku is one of those guys who has all the talent in the world, he has just struggled to fully put it together yet. Injuries have slowed him down some, and inaccurate passes have also been a struggle. We also can’t forget that Njoku has been known the drop one of the easy passes every now and then.
If Njoku can continue to improve his blocking and continue to make contested catches, especially in the red zone, his stock will continue to skyrocket. As much as I would love to see him be a long-term piece of the puzzle, I’m not sure it’s in the cards at the moment.